The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-08-19
Preparing for the Wheat Crop.

Preparing for the Wheat Crop.
The plows are now aGeld preparing
the ground for seeding wheat. On the
proper preparation of the soil will large.
ly depend the yield of the next crop.
If the seed bed is prepared in the best
manner possible with the aid of the fer
tilizers which all farmers have adopted
as a wise policy to use, there should be
no failure in the crop providing the
the seed is put into the ground between
the first week and last week in the month
of September. The preparation of the
ground for this crop, however, is of vi
tai importance, a fact that farmers have
not generally learned. The blowing
should be finished at the earliest day
possible, but narrowing and thorough
pulverizing should accompany the
blowing, and the fresh plowed ground
should be thoroughly narrowed the
same day it is plowsd, and not allowed
to lie in unbrokhn furrows as the plow
turned it up to dry in clods, defying
future efforts of harrow and roller to
reduce it to that fine disentegrated con.
dition which is necessary for a proper
seed bed for SO small and highly i'm
proved grain as whsat. The land de.
signed for wheat should be thoroughly
broken up to good depth and after
being well pulverized by the harrow
rolled with heavy roller. The ordi-
nary spike harrow is not the best i'm
plement to fine The ground, and in fact
is most Objectionable tool to use on
ground that has had trash or straw
manure turned under. The disc or
Acme harrow is the best implement to
crush the clods and fine the soil, 20
proper depth while keeping stubble and
rubbish from finding their way to the
surface. After the rolled field has had
rain it should be gone over again with
the harrow and roller, so as to pack the
soil firmly together and fill all crev.
ices between and under the burrows
where currents Of air may freely circu.
late in dry weather or serve as storage
room for bodies of water from the late
fall rains to become cakes of solid ice
in winter. While the seed bed should be
reduced to the finest tilth to the very
bottom of the furrow if possible, this
pulverized soil should be firmly packed
beneath by rolling and narrowing, and
foe loose tilth Of about three inches
Of the top be made ready to receive the
drilled grain. The yonng rootlets,
which are very fine and tender can
spread and find nourishment in such
soil, while if covered with blanket of
small clods in place Of dust, when a
drouth comes large part of the young
plants will die, and in any case the
wheat will make but feeble growth,
and be poorly prepared to Withstand the
rigors of winter, in lumpy bed.
Yard manure should not be plowed
under, practice farmers still follow to
large extent, although the majority
Of them know it is wrong and that much
Of the fertilizing constituents of the
manure is lost by teaching down below
the reach Of the plant roots. The best
results will always follow first blowing
the ground and spreading the manure
on the surface. then working it into the
soil with the proper kind of harrow for
this purpose. By starting the plow
early the soil is generally found in bet
ter condition than after baking under a
summer sun, and the manure being
spread on the surface the soluble parts
are washed into and incorporated with
the fine surface soil, exactly where the
young wheat plants will find it most
readily and appropriate the nutriment
which they most need as soon as they
sprout from the grain. Many a wheat
crop is ruined by starvation of the
young plants, when the soil is full of
plant food, but in the bottom of the FUR.
row and separated by several inches of
cold, poor earth from the roots it was
expected to nourish; or the young
plants, are destroyed by being dried up
in bed of small clods from the size Of
pea to that Of walnut.
Make the soil for wheat fine and com.
pact, put the manure on the surface
drill in the grain in September and a
good crop Of wheat and fine catch of
grass ore almost assured results,